Bleeding thy Comfort
by Kimeiko
Summary: Two years after Meteor's end...Tifa and Cloud were living happily together, until he commited suicide. Left with an unborn child, Tifa converts the house into an Inn. Her first visitor? Vincent...but how much comfort is too much?


Disclaimer - Wow, I don't own FFVII. Shocker! xD  
  
Chapter One  
  
She remembered the night before it happened...Cloud had been drinking again. And he was a bad drunk. One sweeping glance around the room as she entered their bedroom took in the empty whiskey bottles, and more importantly, the bleary-eyed man sitting on the bed, downing one yet half- full.  
"Cloud..don't you think you've had enough?" she asked gently, while hesitantly approaching him. He looked up at her, giving her a blank look.  
"Go...away," came the slurred response. Tifa sighed, turning away from her drunken husband and beginning to clean up the bottles littered across the room.  
"Fine, have it your way," she snapped, tiring of his antics and dumping the bottles into the trash can. "You'll be the one with a hangover, not me." With that, she stalked out of the room.  
  
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She wasn't sure why Cloud had begun his drinking problem. They were happy, damnit..she was even pregnant, one month along before he went and abandoned her and their unborn child..  
  
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Mysterious dreams...cloaked figures, bleeding corpses...and a shaft of morning sunlight pouring in from the window forced Tifa to crack open her eyes. Tiptoeing back into their room that previous night, she had seen Cloud had already passed out, and thus had proceeded to get into bed herself.  
Rolling over, the first thing she realized was the absence of her husband. "Cloud...?" she muttered sleepily, wondering if he was already up and about.  
She pushed down her tangled hair and groaned, hating the morning. Standing up slowly, she began to make her way to the bathroom.  
"Ouch!" she cried out as her bare foot came into contact with a shard of broken glass on the floor. "Godamnit!" For the first time she noticed the pieces of a shattered bottle scattered across the floor. "Cloud, what the hell?" she muttered angrily, thinking of the mess she would have to clean up.  
Then she heard it.a creak. The sound of something brushing up against something else.  
"Cloud..?" she whispered, feeling a shiver dart down her spine. The broken pieces of bottle forgotten, she dashed out of their bedroom, ignoring the shards of glass sticking into her feet in her rush. Out of the bedroom door...into the hallway.  
"No.." a muted cry. "NO! CLOUD, NO!"  
A rope tied onto one of the ceiling rafters.the chair lying on it's side next to it...  
Her husband's body swinging back and forth...  
And then the screaming.  
  
Dear my love, haven't you wanted to be with me?  
  
And dear my love, haven't you longed to be free...  
  
I can't keep pretending that I don't even know you,  
  
And at sweet night, you are my own.  
  
Take my hand  
  
We're leaving here tonight..  
  
The funeral was filled with close friends and a small ceremony. Tifa, dressed in her best black dress, sat in a chair still numb with shock. A pale hand came to rest on her's, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Tifa..."  
Tear-stained eyes met ethereal blue-green. "No...I'm seeing things...Aeris..." Tifa mumbled to herself, half-out of herself from grief.  
And the pink-clothed flower girl was gone as quickly as she had been. Tifa's body began to shake with contained sobbing. "Now I'm going crazy..." she whispered in grief..."Now I'm all alone..."  
"Tifa? Who in the world were you talking to just now?" asked Yuffie, coming up behind her to give her shoulder a pat. The young, thieving ninja girl had indeed matured in the past three years, becoming a beautiful young woman. But her black eyes still at times danced with mischief.  
However, on this day of sorrow, they were downcast and shiny with unshed tears.  
"No one, Yuffie." Tifa shook her head.  
  
She didn't know why he had done it...abandoned her and their child, still unborn inside her. But she had a good idea. She could never replace...her. Aeris Gainsborough, the woman Cloud would always love, no matter how hard Tifa had tried to change that fact. She had been...a replacement. But she was all right with that, as long as he was hers...but then he had started drinking. She supposed to get away from it all...to escape from the painful remembrance of his lost, true love. But then...even drinking wasn't enough for him...he needed the ultimate escape. And now he was together, in the Lifestream, with her...as he had always wanted. To be with Aeris.  
  
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TWO MONTHS LATER  
  
"Ugh..." Tifa groaned loudly, clenching her teeth together as her morning sickness came in waves. She lay in bed, eyeing the bathroom and wondering if she would need to make another run for the toilet. Taking deep breaths, she closed her eyes and tried to make the room stop spinning.  
Suddenly the door opened and she squinted to make out the shapes of two people invading her bedroom. "What the fuck? Go away.."  
Yuffie and Elena stood, observing the messy room. "Tifa? You have to stop doing this, damnit.....you need to get control of your life again..." Yuffie muttered softly, her eyes falling on her friend's pitiful form.  
"But I can't...not without him..." Tifa moaned, tears leaking down her already tear-stained face. Yuffie shook her head with a small sigh, feeling both sorry for and frustrated with her.  
"Tifa, you're three months pregnant, and you have no way to make any income.the money you got from Cloud's will isn't going to last you forever, especially if you keep living like this..." Elena said quietly, her first input into the conversation.  
"You know..." Tifa said, sitting up in the bed. "Maybe Cloud had a good idea. Just a rope around my neck and then-" she made a gagging sound. Elena stared in silent shock at her words, while Yuffie turned red with rage, storming over to Tifa's side and delivering a sharp slap to her face.  
"Don't you DARE talk that way, godamnit! Not with your baby growing inside you!" she screamed angrily. Tifa held a hand up to her now-red cheek, her face once more going blank.  
"So what the hell do you two think I should do, then?" Tifa muttered softly, the slap seeming to have knocked some sense into her.  
Elena stepped forward cautiously, seeming almost afraid of the brown- haired woman. "I had this, um, idea," she began. Tifa nodded. "I was thinking of how many tourists have been coming to Nibelheim ever since the destruction of Meteor.to see the place where it all started, so to speak. The Inn is booked constantly and the town could use another one.."  
Tifa gave her a blank look. "So basically, you want me to open my house to strangers?" She looked over at Yuffie, who was nodding and seemed to agree with Elena's plan.  
"I've already talked to some people. You could use the extra company..and it won't cost too much to convert your house into an Inn. In fact, the people I talked to told me it would only come to about 150,000 Gil, which isn't too much, right?" Elena knew she was babbling a bit, but she was desperate for Tifa to stop this reclusive attitude. She and Yuffie both were.  
Tifa closed her eyes and lay back down on her pillows. "Give me some time to think about it. I'll let you know when I've made up my mind, now...go, please."  
"Thank you for considering it, Tifa." Yuffie smiled, patting Tifa's hand and giving her a warm smile. "Call me when you come to a decision, 'kay?" Tifa nodded with a small smile in return and waved as both women exited the room.  
"Well..." Tifa said to herself, patting her slightly-bulging belly. "I suppose this is the start of life after Cloud.."  
  
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Hee. ^^; That's uh, the end of Chapter One. w00t? xD Well, comment if you'd like, it would be appreciated. ^^ I should have the next chapter up in a week or so, depending on how lazy I get with this xD See ya all until next time ^^ 


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